Arts Advocacy Day 2013

Post authored by Communications Intern Olivia Brown

“As in nature, creativity in human society happens at the intersections.”

This “edge effect” that Yo-Yo Ma used as a running thread throughout his Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy at the Kennedy Center this past Monday gets at the core reasons why FMC supports Arts Advocacy Day. A yearly event organized by Americans for the Arts, Arts Advocacy Day brings artists and supporters together in the capital to stand up for arts funding and create a dialogue between the worlds of art and politics.

In addition to presenting the yearly Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy, Arts Advocacy Day brings hundreds of arts advocacy representing all fifty states to meet with congress and make the case for a broad pro-arts agenda, including federal arts funding, support for arts education in schools, support for public media, and many more issues. This year, Yo-Yo Ma and a number of other artists including Matt Sorum of Guns N’ Roses even took some time out of their schedule in order to to host a Google Hangout answering viewer questions about arts education.

Despite this yearly event and its large group of influential supporters, the National Endowment for the Arts, one of the main beneficiaries from Americans for the Arts’ efforts, continues to see its funding imperiled. Since the NEA issues grants that bolster music programs, create music sector jobs, and increase the amount of local arts investment, providing it with adequate funding is critical to the preservation of America’s cultural heritage and creation of new works.

While this year’s event has come to a close, there’s never a bad time to contact your representatives and senators to tell them why the arts are important to you. For policy papers, facts & figures, and research that can help you make the case. we encourage you to check out AFTA’s Congressional Arts Handbook.